Program Directory

 
City Club of Cleveland - Steve Roberts, Journalist
 
 
 
Steve Roberts has been a journalist for more than 40 years, covering some of the major events of his time, from the antiwar movement and student revolts of the 60s and 70s to President Reagan's historic trip to Moscow in 1988 and eleven presidential election campaigns. After graduating from Harvard magna cum laude in 1964, he joined the New York Times as research assistant to James 'Scotty' Reston, then the paper's Washington bureau chief. His 25-year career with the Times included assignments as bureau chief in Los Angeles and Athens, and as Congressional and White House correspondent. He was a senior writer at U.S. News for seven years, specializing in national politics and foreign policy. Roberts and his wife, TV journalist Cokie Roberts, write a nationally-syndicated newspaper column that was named one of the ten most popular columns in America by Media Matters. In February of 2000 Steve and Cokie published From This Day Forward, an account of their marriage, as well as other marriages in American history. The New York Times called the book "inspiring and instructive" and it spent seven weeks on the Times best-seller list. Roberts also writes a bi-monthly column, Hometown, for Bethesda Magazine. His childhood memoir, My Fathers' Houses, was published in the spring of 2005 and was featured at the National Book Festival in Washington.

A well-known commentator on many Washington-based TV shows, Roberts also appears regularly as a political analyst on the ABC radio network and is a substitute host on NPR's Diane Rehm Show. As a teacher, he lectures widely on American politics and the role of the news media. Since 1997 he has been the Shapiro Professor of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University, where he has taught for the last 17 years. His many honors include the Dirksen Award for covering Congress, the Wilbur Award for reporting on religion and politics, the Bender prize as one of GW's top undergraduate teachers, and four honorary doctorates. He's been named a Father of the Year by the Father's Day Council and received the Public Service Sector Award from the Aspen Institute. Steve and Cokie have two children: Lee, a real estate investor in Raleigh, NC, and Rebecca, a journalist in Washington, and six grand-children. In his spare time, Roberts is an avid gardener and tennis player.
February 26, 2010